OMC 43 1989 Emptied Fuel Filter Now No Fuel

"Hi All,

I recently took th

"Hi All,

I recently took the fuel filter off the engine and dumped all the gas (&water?) out of the filter, and replaced the same filter on the engine (because I'd recently bought it). I did this because of the new Ethanol gas and wanted to make sure I got any water out of there, not sure if it was smart or not. Anyway...

Now, it's a few weeks later, haven't started the boat since I emptied the filter, and I just went to start the engine Sunday to take it out for a ride and there's no fuel shooting into the carb when I push the throttle down in neutral (I usually crank the throttle handle down all the way for a second before I start it cold, to get gas in there). I tried pushing the throttle down probably 25 times, nothing's coming out.

Does the filter have to be re-filled with clean gas before you put it back on? Or does it need to be primed somehow?

Hoping this is an easy one, thanks for any help you can lend asap before too many stripers make it back down the coast.

Doug"

"You just created the mother o

"You just created the mother of all vapor lock situations. Yes, it needs to be re-filled and moving the throttle does nothing for a 'no gas before the fuel pump' issue."

"Ok, that made sense to me als

"Ok, that made sense to me also, but, the thing that killed that theory for me initially was that last time I put the fuel filter on (new), I didn't do anything special to prime it or anything. What could be the difference (just curious) I'll fill the filter up and give it another try.

Thanks a lot for your help Jim as usual. The boat made it all summer without catching on fire, etc.

Doug"

"Doug,
I have the feeling you

"Doug,
I have the feeling you are trying to get the carb to pump fuel before you tried turning the engine over enough to fill the system with fuel again.

If this is the case what you have is the same as running out of gas. After adding more gas the engine must pump it back up to the carb.
This can take what would seem like a long time since you need to refill the filter.
If the filter is a large size this would hold almost a quart of fuel and that would take a lot of cranking for the fuel pump to fill.

There is no need to fill the filter before installing it. Vapor lock is a heat related problem where the fuel boils at the carb and intake before it reaches the cylinders.
A cold engine will not vapor lock.

Try a little starting fluid in the carb so the engine will fire and run a second or two. This will pump the fuel up much faster and is much easier on the starting system.

Make sure you replace the air breather before starting the engine to prevent a fire should the engine backfire.

Good luck."

"I have never pre-filled my wa

"I have never pre-filled my water/fuel separators when replacing anually and have never had a problem restarting, pumping the throttle will do nothing if the bowl is empty. I'm not sure why your system doesn't just prime itself but I agree with Charli's idea although I'm not a fan of using starting fluid, I would carefully pour a little gas down the carb instead but keyword is CAREFULLY, don't want to read about in the news!"

"When I was working on people&

"When I was working on people's boats, I filled the separator and it made re-starts a lot faster."

I used a pump type oil can to

I used a pump type oil can to inject fuel into the carburetor. A good suggestion is to take off the fuel line at the carb and refill the bowl. This will give pleanty of run time to pump up fresh fuel.

"Thanks everyone for the help.

"Thanks everyone for the help. I refilled the filter almost to the top with gas, then used some starting fluid to get the engine cranked over. After a few times, the engine came back online and it's running like a champ now. Thanks!"